ARK’s August: Core DevNet and New Partnerships

As Q3 2018 winds down, the ARK platform has used the recent bear market to focus on hitting milestones. August especially saw the ARK team knocking it out of the park in terms of bringing months of hard work and development to fruition.

Let’s take a look at a few of their biggest achievements.

ARK Core DevNet Goes Live

In light of the preceding ARK Core V2 hard fork, the ARK developing team created a DevNet specifically for V2 in order to address any glitches in the codebase. As of August 15, this has been live, with community members providing crucial feedback and testing transaction types and edge cases.

On its way is the Desktop Wallet V2, expected to be completed Q4 2018. The team are working on some new features for that, including a “dynamic fee” slider that are undergoing rigorous testing.

The team are also working on developing an internal network in which the V1 mainnet database will function as a V2 database. This will facilitate testing for false transactions and ensure that all data is compatible with V2, in preparation for the mainnet deployment.

For mainnet delegates who want to participate in making sure this runs smoothly, ARK has provided a breakdown of the steps the testing process will involve:

1.       Convert v1 Mainnet database to V2 database
2.       Start network with converted database
3.       Trace logs for errors
4.       Log all exceptions in the exclusion list
5.       Repeat the process until no errors/edge cases remain
6.       Add mainnet delegates to isolated environment for testing
7.       Announce mainnet hard fork date when all tests pass

Get involved in the testing and set up your own relay node here.

Once the V2 Desktop Wallet goes live, you will be able to download it here.

ARK Announces Partnership With Ø Crypto Union

As blockchain platforms get more settled and inch towards the mainstream, partnerships are the next big step on the way to mass adoption. And ARK has managed to score not one but two partnership this past month, which is fantastic news as they continue to build their ecosystem.

First up, on August 23, ARK announced their partnership with Ø Crypto Union, which will allow users to borrow fiat money by staking their ARK tokens, as well as instantly withdraw their crypto with Ø debit and credit cards. Ø Crypto Union is a blockchain project that seeks to become the world’s first completely decentralized bank, by providing users 3 key services:

• Ø Pay: a service that provides users credit backed by their crypto investments – by using ARK tokens as collateral, users will receive 40% of their value in fiat, as well as avail of Ø credit cards
• Ø Invest: a 100% liquidity internal exchange platform, called ØDEX
• Ø Lift: a platform that offers tax optimization, asset management, and other services to users

ARK will be hosting an AMA with Ø’s team in early September, so keep an eye on their social media channels!

ARK Announces Partnership With MARAChain

Another partnership ARK recently announced was their partnership with MARAchain, a project which allows encrypted transmission of documentation via the blockchain. The motivation behind this partnership lies in the EU’s new GDPR regulations in the hopes of protecting data privacy. Small businesses will need a solution catered to their needs when it comes to transmitting data in compliance with these regulations—and Marachain intends to build them that solution on the ARK blockchain.

As the ARK blog states:

MARAChain allows transmission of encrypted and secure documentation, restricting access to third parties and offering access management to these creditable transfers, through an auditable, verifiable and secure P2P transaction.

The information transmitted will then be available 24/7, protected from being lost by MARAChain network redundancy.

Both sides of the partnership are excited about MARAChain’s addition to the ARK ecosystem, with MARAChain CEO and founder A.J. Melian stating:

In our view, ARK has the potential to become the blockchain ecosystem for high-security data environments, as required for compliance with the EU-GDPR regulations. This, in combination with the professionalism of the organisation and people behind ARK, is why MARAChain has chosen to collaborate with ARK to develop the future of Secure Exchange of Digital Documents.

To read more about how MARAChain will utilize the ARK blockchain, check out their whitepaper. But suffice to say, both companies have high hopes for where their cooperative efforts will lead, and it’s well worth keeping an eye on their progress.

Related: Should You Invest In Ark? (Opinion)